Just be and enjoy being

Committed to our Mission: "Uniting the World in Love" through meditation and prayer,

Sunday services, classes, workshops, retreats, fellowship, community outreach, and other opportunities for growth.

Rev. Mary Kay Ducey Minister and Spiritual Director

Meditation: 10:15am

Sunday Service: 11:00am Spirit Academy for Children: 11:00am 1495 W. 8 th Avenue, Vancouver Just east of Granville in the Masonic Centre

Check out our website for ways we honour the Universal Light during the month of Decembe r through celebration and community outreach .

www.cslvancouver.com 604-321-1225

Celebration of Universal Light

In December, we honour the experience of Universal Light – the enlightenment of theBuddha, the miracle of Hanukkah, the birth of the Christ, and other celebrations of the emergence from darkness to light.

It is our belief that there is an inner light of Truth within each one of us. As we partake of these celebrations, we honour our own inner divinity revealed.

Please join us on the eve of Christmas, to experience an amazing sacred service celebrating this Universal Light.

December 24 th at 7:00pm 1495 W. 8 th Avenue, Vancouver

INSP IR AT ION FOR THE YE A R AHE A D…

Inner Reflections Engagement Calendar 2007

A Gift of Beauty and Inspiration

Over 50 breathtakingly beautiful photos match insightful, uplift ing thoughts from Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, making this calendar a gift that brings daily delight. A visual feast for yourself and anyone who appreciates spiritual beauty!

Spiralbound 55 color photos $15.50 Also available in Spanish 55 colorphotos

www.IRcalendar.org

“A work of art.... Delights the eye and uplifts the spirit.” —Nature and Health

$15.50 at bookstores or our website

Enjoy listening? Helping others?

Get paid to do the work you love! Pursue a career in Counselling. • Smaller Class sizes • Hands on intensive training • Instruction from experienced professionals working in the counselling field. • Internship & supervision • Distance Education • Diploma of Professional Counselling 52-week progra m • Diploma of Counselling Practic e • Family Support Worker Certificate 24-week program • Addictions Wo rker Certificate - 24 week program • Specialized Certificates & Individual Courses THE VANCOUVER COLLEGE OF COUNSELLOR TRAINING OFFERS: Free Information Sessions - every Wednesday (11am)

Just be and enjoy being

THE POWER OF NOW

ECKHART TOLLE

S P I R I T UA L I T Y D oes the past take up a great deal of your attention? Do you fre quently talk and think about it, either positively or negatively? Then you are not only reinforcing a false sense of self, but you are also helping to accelerate your body’s aging process by creating an accumulation of past in your psyche. Verify this for yourself by observing those around you who have a strong tendency to hold on to the past.

Die to the past every moment. You don’t need it. Only refer to it when it is absolutely relevant to the present. Feel the power of this moment and the full ness of Being. Feel your presence.

Are you worried? Do you have many “what if ” thoughts? You are identified with your mind, which is projecting itself into an imaginary future situation and creating fear. There is no way that you can cope with such a situ ation, because it doesn’t exist. It’s a mental phan tom. You can stop this life-corroding insanity simply by acknowledging the present moment.

Become aware of your breath ing. Feel the air flowing in and out of your body. Feel your inner energy field. All that you ever have to cope with in real life – as opposed to imaginary mind projec tions – is this moment. Ask yourself which “problem” you have right now, not next year, tomorrow or five min utes from now. What is wrong with this moment? You can always cope with the Now, but you can never cope with the future, nor do you have to. The answer, the strength, the right action or the resource will be there when you need it, not before, not after.

“One day I’ll make it.” Is your goal taking up so much of your attention that you reduce the present moment to a means to an end? Is it taking the joy out of your doing? Are you wait ing to start living? If you develop such a mind pattern, no matter what you achieve or get, the present will never be good enough; the future will always seem better. A perfect recipe for permanent dissatisfaction and non-fulfillment, don’t you agree?

Are you a habitual “waiter”? How much of your life do you spend wait ing? What I call “small-scale waiting” is waiting in line at the post office, in a traffic jam, at the airport, or wait ing for someone to arrive, to finish work and so on. “Large-scale waiting” is waiting for the next vacation, for a better job, for the children to grow up, for a truly meaningful relation ship, for success, to make money, to be important or to become enlight ened. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.

Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present. You don’t want what you’ve got; you want what you haven’t got. There is nothing wrong with striving to improve your life situation. You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deepest inner Being. It is already whole, complete, perfect. Your life situation consists of your circum stances and your experiences.

For example, m a n y p e o p l e are waiting for prosperity. It cannot come in the future. When you hon our, acknowledge and fully accept your present reality – where you are, who you are and what you are doing right now – you are grateful for what you have, grateful for what is, grate ful for Being. Gratitude for the pres ent moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity. In time, that prosperity manifests for you in vari ous ways.

So give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slip ping into waiting, snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being. If you are pres ent, there is never any need for you to wait for anything. So next time somebody says, “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” you can reply, “That’s all right, I wasn’t waiting. I was just standing here enjoying myself, in joy in my self.”

Adapted from The Power of Now, copyright 1999 by Eckhart Tolle. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA, 800-972- 6657 (ext. 52). You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deep est inner Being. It is already whole, complete, perfect.